My Temporary Working Space

A compact, but functional and portable workspace

I've been very lucky since I moved to Swift Current in September. The staff at The Art Gallery of Swift Current have very kindly allowed me to use space in a back hall to set up my sewing machine to work on my Fractured Quilt Challenge top to meet the deadline (which was fortunately extended). Even with it being in a back hall out of public view, I attract some attention when library staff are passing thru or other folks hear the sewing machine going. I have tried to book the space one day a week unless my work schedule prohibits it. After the first couple of times, I received permission to leave a "bare bones" ensemble with my sewing machine, small table, clamp lamp and iron tucked away there so I could pop over and sew when I had a bit of time.

View from the front entry door looking towards the back of the hallway

In addition, the Librarian has asked me to teach her how to use a sewing machine. When I asked her what she wanted to make with it, she informed me she wanted to make tote bags out of fabric samples that had been donated to the library. These bags were to be given to children to keep their library books in. You guessed it......... guess who is making the bags. I figure that since they are being very generous in giving me the space to use, I can do this for them. So far I've made 30 bags, without the handles. The fabric samples are gorgeous and all serged so easy to sew. I try to sew one day for myself plus a 3 hr shift on another day to make bags. Next day will be a handle day! Personally, I am wondering if the kids are gonna be able to keep the bags since they're so nice.

The next pic shows some of the bags I've made so far.

The librarian and I have had one sewing lesson so far. I taught her how to thread the machine and had her do her driving test on paper a number of times to get the feel of how the machine worked. She is very enthusiastic and practiced a lot on paper. We ended the lesson with her sewing a seam. She seemed quite pleased to have reached that stage.

They are having a musical event at the Gallery on Fri and Sat nights, so I packed everything up and put it in the storage unit for now. It's a pretty compact set up.

Sorry for the sideways view, I must have taken the pic with the camera turned so everything fit in.

So, I spent much of my second day off this week working on a piece (which I'll show another time). It was one I designed on graph paper. I had to spend a bit of time figuring out how best to piece it. I was feeling a bit tired today, probably due to the constant high winds we've had for the past couple of days, so I was very cautious about cutting and sewing. Usually on days like that I sew bags (vbg). Something mindless that keeps me in the studio. I'm trying to be disciplined about making time for my sewing. In two weeks I will have my new apt and have my own space to sew again.